Pages

Sweden and Iceland have promised to provide sanctuary to Palestinian refugees who left Iraq and then got stuck in a no-mans land on the Iraqi-Syrian border.

Around 155 of refugees from the camp of al-Tanf are due to land in Sweden within the next few weeks, according to a representative from the United Nations organisation UNHCR, a middle-eastern media organisation.

Iceland is to receive a couple dozen refugees from another camp in the area, al-Walid.

According to the Swedish Board of Migration, these 155 Palestinians are part of this year's refugee quota for 278 Palestinians.

Following the fall of Saddam Hussein, many Palestinians fled Iraq, but were not taken in by other countries in the region, and ended up living in dire circumstances on the Iraqi Syrian border.

Amnesty International reported on these Palestinians' plight last year, and told of refugees being kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Shiite Muslim group